After a review by the state education department’s committee, around 70 applicants for the state government’s ‘Residential Schools of Excellence’ project on the Public Private Partnership (PPP) model have been shortlisted.
Nearly 350 applicants from across the state, ranging from prominent religious organisations to eminent philanthropists, private universities to corporate institutions, Non Resident Indians (NRIs) to non government organisations (NGOs), had expressed interest in the state education department’s ‘Residential Schools of Excellence’ scheme, which provides free residential schooling from grades 6 to 12 through private project partners.
An interaction with the shortlisted ones is scheduled on January 3.
“The education department intends to brief them on everything they are expected to do, after which they will sign a memorandum of understanding.” for example, the type and quality of infrastructure that must be provided. It’s to make sure that once the MoU is signed, the selected applicants don’t back out at a later date or in the middle of the process. As a result, they have the option to withdraw now if they so desire,” said Education Secretary Vinod Rao.
On Monday, the education department will present a presentation outlining the project’s requirements to the shortlisted applicants. The terms of the MoU are also being drafted with the assistance of legal professionals in order to legally bind them.
The selection process for which applications were invited in August 2021 is already running behind schedule due to the change in Vijay Rupani-led state government in September, 2021.
The department is aiming at the PPP model that requires entire investment on land, infrastructure, human resource, logistics and management to run nearly 50 ‘Residential Schools of Excellence’ with 2000 to 10,000 students, to commence from June 2022.
“Ideally 50 schools will be selected where these would be required to undertake infrastructure by June 2022 as per minimum requirement and part by next June,” added Rao. Thus, the policy aims to create a total of 1 lakh students-capacity in these residential schools across classes 6 to 12 within the next 3 to 5 years.
Though, the education department is looking at a geographical representation from across the state which with number of applications from one region dominating the others it looks difficult to implement.
According to sources, the number of applications from Saurashtra is higher than in other parts of the state, such as tribal areas. While the project partner will bear the entire capital cost, the education department will provide financial assistance for recurring costs through a lump sum amount of Rs 60,000 per child per year, with an annual increase of 7%, decided for fiscal 2021-22.
As per a recent MoU signed by the University of Cambridge and the Gujarat Secondary and Higher Secondary Education Board (GSHSEB), these residential schools of excellence will be bilingual from grades 6 to 8, and English medium from grades 9 onwards.
From June 2022, the Memorandum of Understanding between the University of Cambridge’s Cambridge Partnership for Education and the Government of Gujarat will be implemented in residential schools of excellence, allowing for collaboration on curriculum development, assessment, teaching and learning resources, and teacher training.